focus on the students that i m standing in front of every day. you re worried kids will slip through the cracks. absolutely. reporter: dr. christy heads the teachers union in prince george s county. they were falling through the cracks before and they are going to it s going to be like opening the floodgates. reporter: casa grand s elementary school district is one of many that s moved to a four-day week to retain staff. their high schools are looking to hire more teachers from overseas, in some classrooms para educators are teaching lessons prepared by a licensed teacher like stacy brady. do you think the shortage is going to get worse? i think it will. my biggest fear is that some kid of getting hurt in some way, emotionally or physically in the room and i m not able to see it because there s so many students in the room. right now most districts are actually trying to hire more staff than usual to help with the issues of the learning loss that kids are dealing with